Black 10 - DEAD and broken down with after pics

I had an old 10 gallon laying around that I had painted the back of it black. I always thought it made plants stand out and decided to set it up in Nov. of 2012. After years of trying different plants/substrates/lights/CO2 I wanted to use all of the knowledge I gained to accomplish a few goals. I've never been able to grow a carpet and secondly, to sustain stem plants.

The following is a photo update from the first week until now to track my progress.

Initial set-up: Nov 17 2012

GAME OVEROct 28 2014
I'm writing this 2 weeks short of this tanks 2 year anniversary. I decided to break down the tank that got me back into plants and fish. It's not disheartening at all because of everything I have learned from this tank.

The reason why I broke this tank down was because the plants over took it to the point where maintenance was nearly impossible. The crypts in this tank were starting to become stunted because of the immense root structure that developed. There simply wasn't enough substrate and room for them to go anywhere or get bigger. Pulling one plant turned into pulling the entire substrate and every other plant in one big carpet.

I started this tank with a single crypt balansae. It was a meager, weak plant that got tossed in here instead of the trash. I really didn't think it would make it since it had a single leaf and a few small shoots and hardly a root. Fast forward 2 years and it has propagated vigorously. There were so many plants, with so many leaves that grew so fast they covered the top of the water. I had to cut feet of leaves back weekly so that light could reach into the tank. I pulled dozens and dozens of strong healthy plants out of this tank as a result of the weak, singular plant.

The Crypt. Wendti red and the Crypt. lutea green weren't as dramatic but they multiplied well also.

The microsword nearly went away in favor of hemianthus micranthemoides for a while but it was replaced from the initial stock and did fairly well considering it was the low man on the light totem pole in this tank.

Please compare the amount of plants of these three species. They original photo is the amount I started with and never added additional plants of these species. I have sold a few balansae so this is a few short of what could have been even. Still can't believe all of this came out of a ten. It will be for sale on the forum soon.

Plant List:
Crypt. Wendti bronze
Crypt. Walkeri
Bacopa Carolina
Red Ludwigia
Microsword
Watersprite
Not sure of the thin pink leafed plant in right corner (alternanthera?)
The tall val looking plant was sold to me as a crypt.. not sure on it so if anyone has any ideas, let me know please!

I acquired some dwarf baby tears and cherry shrimp so that is the new addition from this pic. You can start to see the growth of the water sprite that attached on the filter. There is also noticeable growth of the tall val like plant in the middle that consistently added a new leaf every week.

The microsword had a huge die-off the first few weeks after planting but slowly rebounds for me.

At this point I tried to switch from DIY to paintball CO2... this was a huge mistake. It dumped in my tank and killed off all of my livestock.. Had to restock the shrimp and made the switch to snakeskin endlers this time. Lesson learned the hard way...

At this point, I switched back to DIY CO2.. when I tried to connect the tubing onto the glass difuser it broke in my hand.. I mean in my hand and sliced me pretty good. (I'm omitting that photo though) Along with paintball CO2, don't tinker with fragile glass at 3am after bar close...

I was very pleased with my new diffuser, the end of a Q-tip trimmed a bit and jammed into the tubing... It produced a mist of bubbles.

Late in March I set-up a drop checker in the tank. I thought my steady stream of misty bubbles was enough CO2 but the drop checker said otherwise... After a bit more research, I found the best DIY reactor I have ever seen and I implemented it into my set-up in April.

It is a Hagen elite mini filter that is modified to accept the CO2 line and the impeller is used to break up and disolve the CO2 better into the water column. I have tried this with other HOB filters but the surface agitation is not produce nearly as solid of results. I have seen this diffuser set up many ways but obviously I believe my way is the best.. The drop checker is consistently in the green.

At this point, I have sold water sprite by the bucket full and still have too much. It shades my tank too much.

The red ludwigia stretches across my tank and should be trimmed. Is there anyway to stop the annoying sideshooting roots from growing?

The tall unidentified val like plant in the middle has 10-12 leaves now. I have identical plants in my 30 gallon and they seem to be larger with longer leaves almost as if it is growing to the size of the tank....

And speaking of growing to the size of the tank.. My microsword in the 10 gallon is 1/2 of the length as my 30 gallon. It also hasn't spread as rapidly but it is a deeper more lush green then the microsword in my 30. The tanks are very similar except for the depth and substrate. The 30gal has 50/50 gravel/flourite mix.

Here is a picture of the 30 so you can see the difference in the grass-like plants.

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